Stigler justified university political disengagement as sane specialization in a complex world.

Evidence

39 Kalven Committee, “Report.” Stigler’s full statement can be found in a manuscript entitled “The University in Political and Social Movements,” GSRL Box 22. In 1970, when the Kalven Committee was reconvened, Stigler took the opportunity to amplify on his dissent: “Disengagement and specialization are a sane man’s—and a sane university’s—way of living in an infinitely complex world.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 782

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s map of Chicago-school figures’ disparate views — Stigler’s disengagement stance contrasts with Friedman’s public activism. — connects to: Stigler questioned the very usefulness of intellectuals in a rational world. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 796